John Baxter (political reformer)
English silversmith and radical (fl. 1790-1817)
John Baxter (1756 – 1845?), was a radical British writer and silversmith, living in St Leonards parish, Shoreditch during the 1790s and until at least 1817. He is noteworthy as chairman of the London Corresponding Society in 1794 and as one of the twelve indicted during the 1794 Treason Trials. He also compiled and published ‘’A new and impartial history of England’’ in 1796.
Early life
John Baxter was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Baxter, born 17 August 1756 and christened 5 September 1756 at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. He married Mary Adams 2 September 1776 at the same church, and is usually described as a silversmith. Before his involvement with the London Corresponding Society, he was thrown out of a vestry meeting in Shoreditch and assaulted for doubting "the existence of persons who were Levellers, or who wished to convert England into a Republic." "Seeing he could not resist, he put his hand into his pocket, and pulled out many of the society's addresses, and threw them with a great deal of exultation among the people there." His assailants accused him of High Treason, but Magistrates rejected the charge. They then indicted him for a libel, which was also rejected so he was eventually charged with causing a riot. No further details of the case are known, but one of the accounts of the incident states that Baxter was "scarcely three feet and a half high", so he may have suffered from dwarfism.
London Corresponding Society
Baxter became the Chairman of the London Corresponding Society following the arrest of Maurice Margarot in 1793 and his subsequent transportation to Botany Bay.
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